Meeting and Events Co-ordinator
Dakota Hotels

Louise L

00:03 My name is Louise L and I am the sales and events manager for Dakota Hotels.

00:09 Day to day I oversee events, people phone me up and they want to book private dinners, conferences, meetings and I just basically make sure that they happen, take down all the details and just make sure that the event runs smoothly on the day.

00:23 A funny story I was a karaoke presenter when I left school and one of my, my punters if you like that used to come up and sing worked at Hampden and she said to me, oh you’d be perfect as my assistant, would you come and, and work for me. And I said, yes I’ll come and do that. So that’s how I got the job at Hampden. It’s funny how sometimes just being in the right place at the right time works for you.

00:47 I started off in the back office Hampden Park helping out with the marketing, a marketing assistant but unfortunately quite a few people were sort of made redundant so I ended up working in the reception and from being there I worked at the UEFA Cup Final helping, just liaise with the press and different things and from that I realised, wow I love events, I love the buzz, I love the way that everyone runs about really excited, you feel like you’re part of something fantastic. And it was from then that I decided that I wanted to work in events, the music industry. So I went to the University of Paisley and I got a BA honours in commercial music.

01:27 While I worked at University I worked, did work placements in Canada and I worked for Wind Up Records and Warner Music, which were, which were absolutely amazing companies to work for.

01:38 What I took out of that was the buzz and the excitement of the actual events, it wasn’t really the technical side of things that I found were my passion, although I can do that to a certain degree. And once I left University I, for some strange reason I decided that stability and a proper job was I, I wanted, I wanted the house, I wanted s, I was getting married and I realised the music industry as such wasn’t quite right for me at this stage.

02:07 I didn’t enjoy school very much I got bullied horrendously from the first year till the third year and it really killed my spirit. But I realised that I was going to get anywhere in life that I had to just deal with it and knuckle down. And did I want to leave after fourth year? Absolutely, but did I want a job with, well did I want to work harder than I would maybe need to and so I ended up staying on for fifth and sixth year. I ended up becoming Deputy Head girl at my school and, it just, it’s funny how it turned round, you think at one stage at school it’s awful I just want to die basically, which I did feel when I was in the third year.

02:45 They were so University driven, everybody had to go to University, it was just the done thing at our school. But I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I really didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do, so that’s why I took 2 years out to work and I was the only of my friends that did that, everybody else went straight to University and I did, I felt like a bit of an outcast at first but then I realised well we’re all different, we all take different journeys, so what’s wrong with mine, I’m quite happy doing what I do.

03:16 I graduated with a, a BA Honours a 2:1 and it was just a life changing experience. The people that you meet, the contacts that you make, you’re in a, a class with like-minded people. At school everybody’s is into different things whereas, you know you’re into different things but you’re there for a common purpose and that is to get the degree, the degree with Honours, the Master, the PHD in your chosen subjects.

03:43 The major turning point in my life had to be my work placement in Canada, which I got through working hard at school and going to University. It, it changed my life because I actually opened my eyes to the real word, I was living in another country for 2 months, which isn’t a long time but it’s a substantial period of time to be away from your home and your family, your friends. You have to go out there, you have to survive, you have to pay your bills, you pay your rent, you have to provide for yourself and that was the first time that I’d ever done that on my own.

04:18 It helped build my personality, it helped bring me some inner strength, which I lacked when I was at school.

04:25 END